The present invention relates to a light-guiding system for improving the lighting conditions of the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle.
Motor vehicles are equipped with increasingly large sliding glass sunroofs or panoramic glass roofs in spite of adversities regarding air conditioning engineering such as overheating of the vehicle cabin during intensive insolation or cooling off toward the cold night sky. The reason is the spacious and friendly room atmosphere resulting for the passengers in a bright, light-flooded passenger compartment. Conventional closed roof linings illuminate the passenger compartment only indirectly by the stray light which falls into the passenger compartment through the side windows. Due to the strong contrast against the bright surroundings, therefore, the conventional roof linings appear relatively dark and have an oppressive effect on the driver.
German Patent No. 44 39 547 describes a light system for the passenger compartment of motor vehicles, in which surfaces and objects (for example, pushbuttons such as door light and warning light, door exit lights or interior light) in the passenger compartment are illuminated directly or indirectly via fiber optic guides.